Welcome to SMC 2011

The 8th edition of the Sound and Music Computing Conference has finished succesfully.
Our original goal in organizing SMC2011 was to contribute to the growth of our conference. Over the years, SMC has defined its own identity: a compact and selective conference, which aims at representing the whole spectrum of Sound and Music Computing research, looks for participation especially from young and emerging researchers, believes in interdisciplinary exchanges, grants open access to its contents. We are convinced that all these facets of the "SMC identity" have been well represented this year.
The Summer School included lectures and group projects around the topic of interaction and embodiment in sound and music. The Rencon Workshop has taken place for the second time in Europe and for the first time in Italy, and has been a special event of this year's SMC.
We received 136 submissions for the Technical Program, from which 30 were presented as oral communications and 43 as posters. Accepted papers are published under a Creative Commons license and are available on the smcnetwork portal. For the Music Program, our concert curators selected 16 works among 77 music submissions. Contributions were sent from 37 countries and 5 continents, which shows that our conference is no longer a EU-centered event and is becoming a worldwide reference. We have been very pleased to have philosopher Roberto Casati as our Keynote Speaker. His keynote address has reached its original goal of stimulating a reflection and a lively discussion around the concept of creativity.
Thanks to all contributors and to our >160 participants for making SMC2011 a succesful event. Stay tuned on our news and our social page for post-conference updates, including pictures and videos.

Federico Avanzini
SMC2011 General Chair

Welcome

The SMC Conference is the forum for international exchanges around the core interdisciplinary topics of Sound and Music Computing. SMC 2011 is jointly organized by the Department of Information Engineering (DEI), University of Padova, and the Conservatory "Cesare Pollini" of Padova, Italy. The two institutions have a long history of fruitful collaborations, which started back in the 1970's when the Center of Computational Sonology was founded at the University of Padova. Starting from 2009, the links between DEI and the Conservatory are being further reinforced with the creation of a new joint laboratory conceived to be a place where musicians and researchers meet to create a mixed artistic/scientific environment, the SaMPL (Sound and Music Processing Lab).

The general theme for the SMC 2011 conference is "Creativity Rethinks Science". Creativity is at the core of progress and innovation mechanisms, culture and knowledge are central to most creative processes, so it is only natural that much attention should be devoted to create the appropriate conditions where culture and knowledge can complement each other and proliferate into a unique economic resource which promotes creativity as the key element to today's societal developments. Since the concept of experimentation is common both to researchers and to artists alike, it should be possible to identify and define a number of common frameworks and tools which provide an appropriate interaction set between researchers and artists. SMC is a discipline where several existing unconventional creative environments are found, where research and art already collaborate in a productive way injecting new ideas and concepts in both fields. These provide a fertile ground to analyze and try to understand artistic thinking as a driver of innovation, the relationship between artistic and scientific methodologies, and the processes that lead to successful artistic and/or scientific results.

SMC 2011 will feature lectures, posters/demos, musical/sonic works, tutorials and other types of events. The SMC Summer School will take place just before the Conference and it will aim at giving an opportunity to young researchers interested in the field to learn about some of the core interdisciplinary topics and to share their own experiences with other young researchers.
Attendance to Technical Sessions (oral and poster presentations), lunches, coffee breaks, and social events is restricted to registered participants. Attendance to the Music Program and to satellite events is free and open to the public More information is available on the Programme page.